Hacking cut legs on chip!!!!!

[aardvarks]

the normal wii's had got wii sport in a dvd case. the clipped wii's sport was in a sleeve. when i saw the sleeve i thought this giong to be fun till i saw the 3 clipped legs.
so if you have a new wii and your wii sport is in a sleeve and not in advd case. the legs are goin to be clipped!!


ah so im ok

not to be racist or anything but i still like mexican food


anyway with that out of the way, my g/f bought a wii with the sports title in the cardboard sleeve. I assume this one doesn't have the legs removed because she got it maybe 2+ months ago.

you had it chipped then? you lads in the usa have already got wii's with these cut legs. thats how i found out how to do the chip wire.

 

[aligborat69]

Is there any chance you can post an image of before and after of the cut legs and solder completed?

At least the cut legs doesnt mean you cant chip the machine, just harder, please post pics if you can. Thanks

 

[Lazycus]

My WiiSports came in a cardboard sleeve back in February. I assumed they were always packed this way with USA Wiis. Did USA WiiSports ever come in a full DVD case?

Just because you have one UK Wii with a cardboard sleeve / clipped chip combination doesn't mean that all of them with cardboard sleeves will be clipped, right?

 

[helba]

i did it, here look

 

[aardvarks]

My WiiSports came in a cardboard sleeve back in February. I assumed they were always packed this way with USA Wiis. Did USA WiiSports ever come in a full DVD case?

Just because you have one UK Wii with a cardboard sleeve / clipped chip combination doesn't mean that all of them with cardboard sleeves will be clipped, right?

i have two with the clipped chips.am i that unlucky then to have found the only two in the uk with clipped chips?

 

[Perplexer]

I hadn't modded a Wii in a long time... so a cow-orker brings one in for me today.

Just my luck, three cut pins on the D2B chip...

Luckily there is a little stub left, and without any grinding, I bridged the stubs back with their solder pads on the PCB. Added an Chiip (OpenWii 2.2) and it works fine... but he got his money's worth from the mod fee!

USA
D2B chipset
Serial: LU317544xxx

Sorry, no pics... I was so happy it booted fine on the first try, I put the case back together and hoped to not see it again!!

 

[aligborat69]

The launch Wii's up until now in the UK had the normal white DVD case for wii Sports, apparently now all new shipments should have the cut legs and cardboard sleeve for wii sports. Still, the last time a machine shipped with a free game was 1991, Super Mario World with SNES. Free game whether card sleeve or dvd case is still brilliant.

Ive done quite a bit of soldering in the past few years, be it damaged PC things or my wii, but im not too sure about fixing the cut legs on the chip, does anyone have a guide or more pics of the actual process? I assumed it couldnt be that easy, otherwise there was no point cutting them in the first place.

My friend will want his doing soon and i know it has cut legs, so any advice or step by step help would be much appreciated, only for the leg fixing process, i know how to do the chip.

Thanks

 

[cartman100]

damn , got 5 Wii from GAME to mod , all 5 have the Wii Sports in the cardboard dvd sleeves, has anyone had a Wii console that came with Wii Sports in the dvd sleeve and the legs were still intact or are all the cardboard sleeved Wii Sports consoles with the legs cut

thanks for any help

 

[Azimuth]

damn , got 5 Wii from GAME to mod , all 5 have the Wii Sports in the cardboard dvd sleeves, has anyone had a Wii console that came with Wii Sports in the dvd sleeve and the legs were still intact or are all the cardboard sleeved Wii Sports consoles with the legs cut

thanks for any help

My wii sports came in a cardboard dvd sleeve and the legs were intact. This is on an NTSC console, might be different on pal systems.

 

[cartman100]

thanks Azimuth , anyone with the PAL Wii with the legs intact when Wii Sports came in cardboard dvd sleeve?

 

[aardvarks]

Stripped down the second wii and here are the picks, from start to finish.

Hope this helps

 

[cartman100]

well done mate thats some good soldering there

, seems not all the PAL Wii with the cardboard dvd cases have the cut pins on the chip , i have just checked the 5 Wii i got , all came with cardboard dvd sleeves for the Wii sports game,

2 of the consoles had the legs cut, serial number below

LEH 12487 7xxx

LEH 12487 8xxx

3 of the consoles without the 3 legs cut off


LEH 12471 8xxx

LEH 12471 7xxx

LEH 12471 7xxx

hope this helps someone at least

 

[aligborat69]

Excellent photos, thank you!

So basically, you have to file down the chip, to reveal the three points, then use wires to solder them to those points and to the relevant points on the wiikey. And the other normal board points solder onto wiikey and sorted.

By the way, what is that Gel stuff you used? And what are the risks of filing a chip down like that, in theory, if done correctly, no data problems possible?

Excellent thought and glad it works!

 

[yourdaddy50]

sweet pics they fully explain how to do it
o yea what did you use to file down the chip
I'm thinking about using a nail filer

 

[Redsquirrel]

By the way, what is that Gel stuff you used?

im pressuming its hot glue.

 

[DAZA]

i think i might be in luck then.........well letshope neway otherwise its going to be costly to fit mine out with a chip, aadrdvarks nice work on the modification to the microchip, impressive!

 

[hier0phant]

LEH 12328 7xxx

UK PAL with Wii Sports in cardboard sleeve

legs cut

 

[aardvarks]

By the way, what is that Gel stuff you used?


im pressuming its hot glue.

yes i used hot glue to hold down the wires and also coved the solder connections on the chip after i tested it works.
hope it helps

 

[aardvarks]

just picking up two more later today. bet they have the legs cut to!!

 

[cory1492]

Nice work aardvarks

Hopefully they don't find a way to remove the serial interface from the drive chip entirely (aka: I'm hoping I'm not right in thinking that the cut chip legs are only a stop-gap until they run out of the current revision).

Hot glue == generally bad news. Sure, it works initially, it's fast and easily gotten, but it has other drawbacks... don't listen and eventually someone will pay the price a year down the road when the "pro" installer is not there to fix the problem (if it is fixable).

Do not put it on/around sensitive connections like those on the exposed chip legs, as the glue ages (a year from now) it will in many cases cause problems - especially if it is in a situation where it repeatedly gets warmed/cooled, such as inside a console. I have seen at least one case (someone else's PS2 chip install gone bad) where the glue became rigid and ripped a wire right off a chip leg, and have never used the stuff inside a console myself - fibre/non conductive/double sided tape, contact cement gel, or if the install is definitely permanent and working, 8 hour epoxy; any of those are much more reliable long term for holding wires in place and do not flex/age around the wire like hot glue does - which could potentially cause damage on sensitive stuff like those tiny exposed bits of leftover legs.

If you must use hot glue, only use it away from critical joints, never on components, and leave enough wire that there is a mil or two of give so the hot glue will not put mechanical stress on the joint when (not if) it ages and hardens up (the picture above should be OK, but I wouldn't want to bet on it if it got under the chip legs).

Better yet, expose the legs, use some fine copper wire (uncoated magenet wire is nice and small after 32AWG) and just connect the legs to the pads they are normally connected to (in some cases this would not be an option since so many people seem to like lifting the handy serial pads) so there is no issue with hot glue and connecting wires directly to the chip.